


if you ever wanna be in love

by end_thistragedy



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fluff, Others Mentioned - Freeform, barry being embarrassingly in love with iris, the one where Iris and Felicity are in a band and Barry and Cisco are their biggest fans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-19
Updated: 2017-01-19
Packaged: 2018-09-18 15:20:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9390689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/end_thistragedy/pseuds/end_thistragedy
Summary: He’s dreamt of this moment so many times and this isn’t real. This can’t be real.“This isn’t real,” Barry buries his face in his hands, shaking his head in an attempt to wake himself up. “No way is this real. I’m not ready. This isn’t real, Cisco.”





	

**Author's Note:**

> i love this pairing honestly where have they been all my life ???

 

Iris West walks into the bar at 12 a.m. on a Friday night.

Barry and Cisco are just coming down from the high of seeing the greatest show of their lives, arguing over the best live performance of the night when Cisco pauses mid-Vodka tonic consumption, eyes growing amusingly wide.

Barry is still talking, likely because he doesn’t know how to stop, when Cisco reaches a hand out to slap his arm excessively to get him to shut the actual fuck up right now.

“What—” Barry starts, raising his head to follow Cisco’s gaze to where Iris West and Felicity Smoak are sliding into a booth not but four feet away from them. Barry suddenly has never felt more sober in his life as he blindly reaches out to grip Cisco’s arm, panic rising, “Oh my god, Cisco. That’s—”

“Dude, I know.”

“Should we say something? I don’t—I don’t know. What? What’s the protocol here? Is it creepy? Oh god, we need Caitlin.”

“Barry, relax. Maybe start by not staring?”

But it’s so late and Barry has had enough to drink that logical train of thought has been all but obliterated, so he doesn’t stop staring because that’s _Iris West,_ the co-lead singer he’s had a crush on since she and Felicity came out with their first album nearly six years ago.

He’s dreamt of this moment so many times and this isn’t real. This can’t be real.

“This isn’t real,” Barry buries his face in his hands, shaking his head in an attempt to wake himself up. “No way is this real. I’m not ready. This isn’t real, Cisco.”

“Oh shit, man,” Cisco says, “Okay, listen. Please promise not to freak out.”

“It’s a little late for that!” Barry lifts his head to give Cisco one of his best incredulous stares, but Cisco is too busy unsubtly nodding his head vaguely in the direction of the girls’ table.

“What’s wrong with you? What are you doing?”

It was at that moment that Barry felt his entire existence called into question, because Iris West is smiling at him and directing Felicity’s attention to their table.

“Oh my god,” Barry straightens in his seat, pulling at the collar of his button down, “Are they looking at us?”

“You’re doing the opposite of what I told you not to do.” Cisco says, shaking his head, and then, over the rim of his drink, “Play it cool, man. Play it cool.”

“It’s so hot in here, are you hot?” Barry rambles, wiping his hands on his jeans and watching as the girls start to stand from their booth. “Hold on, what are they doing?”

“Oh, we’ve got incoming,” Cisco leans forward and levels Barry with a look, “You got this. Just breathe, Barry.”

Barry nods his head near frantically and doesn’t tell him that he’s forgotten how to do that.

He only has a second to remember before the girls are there, right in front of them, and Felicity is saying, “What’s going on, boys?”

“What do you mean? No. Nothing. Nothing’s going on. Hi. Hey,” Barry’s laugh is choked, stuck in his throat, around the lump forming there as Iris grabs a chair and slides it up next to where Felicity had placed her own beside Cisco.

“Hi,” Iris says, and her smile is something Barry didn’t expect to have such an effect on him, “You were at the show.”

If Barry were able to speak he probably would’ve said something embarrassing along the lines of _you remember us?_

Cisco clears his throat, understanding that Barry was clearly not going to open his mouth, “Yeah. You rocked it. Truly. And I don’t just say that to anyone.”

Felicity lifts her shoulders in a shrug, “I mean—we did try our best. Not that we don’t try our best all the time. But tonight. We did—try very hard. To make an impress—”

“Right,” Iris says, cutting her off and looking slightly flustered, “What are your names, then? You know ours, I think it’s fair we knows yours.”

Cisco looks to Barry to see if he’s capable of speaking and Barry licks his chapped lips and says, “Barry. I’m Barry. He’s Cisco. Hi.”

Iris laughs, leaning her elbows on the table, “Hi, Barry.”

And right. Okay, cool. That’s that, then. He’s got this.

Felicity taps her phone on the table, glancing between Iris and Barry with a teasing smirk, “Now that that’s taken care of. How about a round of shots? Celebrate making late night friends in dodgy bars?”

“Perfect, yeah. I think I’ll help you get them,” Cisco jumps at the opportunity, “And you guys—chill here?” He says it looking at Barry with a raised eyebrow that Barry clearly doesn’t understand because he’s looking back at him with pleading eyes.

“Oh, I don’t think she needs any help?” Barry tries and Cisco rolls his eyes.

“No, no. I’m really clumsy,” Felicity speaks fast, standing up and grabbing her purse, and then yanking momentarily on Cisco’s sleeve, “Almost bit it on stage, just—” She makes a whistling noise and then slaps her hands together, “You know, splat.”

“I’m sure you’ve got loads to talk about?” Cisco says, and then, to Iris, “Barry’s a huge fan.”

Iris smiles at Barry, resting her chin on her palm. “He is, huh?”

“Totally. Number 1, definitely. Barry, why don’t you tell her about the album three fiasco?”

Barry shakes his head, “Oh—no. No, I don’t think that’s a very good story.”

“No,” Iris says, reaching out to jokingly jostle Barry’s arm, “I want to hear it!”

“It’s really not that interesting, trust me. Cisco, actually—” But when he looks up again, Cisco and Felicity have disappeared and he feels a sudden lost and budding panic. “Okay.”

Iris is watching him with a calculating gaze, waiting, and Barry actually has everything left to lose at this point, and he figures he might as well lose his dignity first.

“So, um,” he coughs into his fist, “You guys live in town, yeah?”

Iris looks relieved that he’s spoken, leaning back in her chair and nodding, “Yeah, actually. I just bought an apartment not too long ago. Felicity is crashing with me until tour is over. She thinks she has to get her own place, but I like having her there.” Barry takes a sip of his drink, tries to keep eye contact without combusting into flames. “What about you?” Iris asks, after a minute, and it takes Barry awhile to realize she’s directed a question at him.

“Oh! Yes. Yes, I do. Have a place,” he answers.

“That’s nice,” Iris says, and she’s leaning in a bit, slowly, slow enough for it to be easily passed off as an accident, a natural sway. At least that’s what he thinks until she says, “Is it close by?”

And that’s just—wow. Okay. This has taken a turn.

“It’s. It’s a few blocks away.”

“Great!” She says, just as Cisco and Felicity return with two shots in each hand, “Hey, we’re gonna go to Barry’s, yeah?”

It’s happening too fast, Barry thinks, as Cisco turns his head with wide eyes, and Barry tries to convey to him that he has no idea what’s going on either.

“Sounds fun!” Felicity says, sliding one of the glasses in her hands over to Iris, “Shots for the road, then.”

\--

Barry pinches himself a couple of times on the walk to his and Cisco’s apartment and then another few when he leads them up to the third floor. He sends a silent prayer to whatever deity there is when he opens the door and does the most clichéd thing and apologizes for the mess.

Both Iris and Felicity shush him as Cisco immediately goes to claim his favorite seat on the couch, Felicity trailing after him, making little comments about how cute the place was.

Barry tries not to blush as he watches Iris wander off, looking at and touching everything with a curious eye.

“Felicity’s right. It’s really cute,” she says.

And Barry has never been complimented on their apartment and he always puts a lot of effort into rearranging every so often to keep things fresh and not even Cisco says anything about it, so he’s a bit chuffed. “Thank you.”

He startles at the sound of Felicity laughing behind them, Cisco telling her to shut up in their own side conversation. They sound like they’re getting on really well and Barry smiles because between the two of them, they only have one other friend who’s been spending more and more time with her boyfriend, Ronnie ever since they got engaged.

But then Iris is brushing their hands together in an attempt to get Barry’s attention, “Hey,” she says.

“Hi,” Barry responds, raising a hand to grip the back of his neck nervously.

“Give me a tour?”

Barry shrugs and raises his hands, presenting, “Well, you’ve seen everything. It’s all here. Back there’s just the bedrooms.”

Iris rolls her eyes, looking endeared, and says, “That’s kind of the point, Barry.”

“Oh,” Barry knows his skin is bright ass red, it never takes much. His laugh sounds desperate, “All right. Yeah. I can. I can show you.”

When he leads her down the hall to his bedroom, he says, “So, here’s that,” once they’re in the doorway.

He nearly gets whiplash with how fast Iris moves, kicking the door shut with one swift movement, stepping forward and crowding into Barry’s space until she’s close enough that their chests are pressed together and they’re nearly stepping on each other’s feet.

When she presses their lips together, she lets out a relieved sigh that encourages Barry to return the favor, moving his lips against hers to the best of his anxiety clouded mind’s ability.

As she pushes Barry onto his back on the bed, she says, “I’m so sorry if this is too forward. I’ve just—” And she stops to kiss him again, to taste him, bite his bottom lip and pull, eliciting a groan from a surprised Barry, “I have to be honest. I watched you in the crowd.”

And Barry didn’t expect that because he watched Iris and there’s no way she was watching him. But then again, whenever it seemed like Iris was looking his way, he would turn his head quickly toward Felicity in a cheap attempt to play it off. “Yeah?”

Iris nods and prompts Barry to raise his arms over his head, “Yeah.”

And it’s a quick progression from there, they both get undressed as swiftly as they can and then Iris’ hands are on Barry’s body, traveling down to his pants and Barry wants to die. He just wants to fall off a cliff and die immediately.

They get each other off as quickly as they can, muffling noises into body parts and trying to be as efficient as they can and when it’s all over, Barry tunes into the sound of the TV almost blaring and instantly feels an overwhelming combination of both terribly guilty and incredibly satisfied.

“Wow,” he says,

“Yeah,” Iris responds with a soft chuckle, taking that as her cue to roll over into Barry’s space, hand coming up to rest on his chest, “Wow.”

Barry wants to hide his face, can feel the smile on it threatening to take over his entire face.

“You’re really soft,” Iris says.

And Barry laughs a little, “Soft?”

“Shut up,” Iris leans forwards to bite the skin where she’d just traced her fingers over in imaginary lines, causing Barry to squirm. “I mean you have. Nice skin? Is that weird?”

“Not unless you’re planning to murder me?”

“Oh my god,” she says, and she’s the one to bury her face in his side, “Please tell me to stop speaking.”

“Never,” Barry says, trying to keep it light and friendly, and veering away from confessing _I’ve been in love with you for six years._ “You’re cute.”

She stops trying to hide herself and raises her head up to look at him, “This wasn’t a one night stand, you know.”

“It wasn’t?”

“No,” she answers. “I’ve seen you in the crowd a lot when we’re here. You and Cisco. We both have.”

Barry tries hard not to flush, “Oh.”

“So I’ve seen the way you look at me.”

“Oh,” Barry says again, quieter.

“No, Barry, it’s all right,” Iris assures him, grabbing his hand and tangling their fingers together, “Because I imagine it’s the same way I look at you.”

Barry feels like he’s on an intense high right now. Iris shouldn’t be real. This shouldn’t be real. “I mean. I just really love your music—”

Iris’ laugh is the most beautiful sound in the world. She’s looking at him like he’s the most precious thing, like she’s the one who should be awestruck in this situation. “The music, yeah,” She says, “I can tell.”

 


End file.
